Punarjay Chakravarty

CEO

San Francisco, California, United States17 yrs 11 mos experience

AI ML PractitionerAI Enabled

Key Highlights

Founder-CEO of Rainier Labs driving Physical AI.
Filed 65 patents in autonomous technology.
Published 50+ peer-reviewed papers in robotics.

Stackforce AI infers this person is a leader in Robotics and AI for Aerospace and Automotive industries.

Contact

Skills

Core Skills

Machine LearningComputer VisionRobotics

Other Skills

Remote SensingAlgorithmsEdge ComputeImage ProcessingSignal ProcessingOpenCVMatlabCC++PythonEmbedded SystemsLaTeXArduino3DPrintingLinux

About

Building the foundations for Physical AI and the coming manufacturing renaissance at Rainier Labs. Previously - as Staff Engineer at Planet Labs, I applied my CV/ML expertise in developing real-time insights for Earth observation satellites. I have a PhD in robotics from Monash University, Australia, where I specialized in collaborative surveillance between fixed cameras and a mobile robot. Prior to joining Planet, I was a Machine Learning and Robotics technical expert for the Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC, where I led a team that worked on perception for AVs. I filed 65 patents and my team showed that Ford vehicles could be completely autonomous in large parking garages with no modification. I worked as a post-doctoral research fellow at KU Leuven, Belgium, where I contributed to the Cametron project, using drones/UAVs for autonomous film-making. My research has resulted in 50+ peer-reviewed papers in top computer vision and robotics conferences, with over 3500 citations. Find out more at: https://jaychakravarty.com/

Experience

17 yrs 11 mos

Total Experience

2 yrs 11 mos

Average Tenure

7 mos

Current Experience

Rainier labs

Chief Executive Officer

Oct 2025 – Present · 7 mos · San Francisco Bay Area · On-site

Founder-CEO at Rainier Labs.

Planet

Staff Edge ML Engineer

Jan 2023 – Jul 2025 · 2 yrs 6 mos · San Francisco Bay Area

Led team and solution that put object detection and geolocation/rectification on the satellite, for real-time insights from space.

Remote SensingMachine LearningComputer VisionAlgorithms

Ford motor company

Technical Expert, Machine Learning and Robotics.

Jun 2017 – Jan 2023 · 5 yrs 7 mos · Palo Alto, California.

Led the Autonomous Vehicle Perception team at Ford's Silicon Valley lab, focusing on innovative solutions for vehicle autonomy.
Developed systems that enabled regular Ford vehicles to achieve full autonomy with minimal modifications.
Filed 55 patents, contributing to the advancement of autonomous technology and ensuring safety with zero crashes.

Machine LearningRoboticsAlgorithmsComputer Vision

Ku leuven

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Oct 2013 – Apr 2017 · 3 yrs 6 mos · Belgium

Developed a pioneering vision-only CNN-based autonomous drone system, contributing to advancements in robotics.
Published research at leading conferences and journals in Computer Vision and Machine Learning.
Supervised and mentored multiple Masters and PhD students, fostering the next generation of researchers.

RoboticsComputer VisionMachine Learning

Sensen.ai

Research Engineer

Mar 2012 – Sep 2013 · 1 yr 6 mos

The project that I led at SenSen Networks was a mobile parking enforcement system that uses cameras mounted on an enforcement vehicle to automatically detect parking overstay. This is a product that is now selling around the world. Here is a video of the system in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Y_933ZP4g
In addition to R&D at SenSen, I have worked on tender responses, product development, system engineering, system maintenance, marketing and customer management.
In 2012, I spent 2 months at Abu Dhabi Airport, helping set up the world's largest network of intelligent video surveillance: 400 cameras doing face recognition, people counting, overcrowding detection, left luggage detection and more.

Computer VisionAlgorithms

Nicta

Researcher

Dec 2010 – Mar 2012 · 1 yr 3 mos

Research Engineer, Systems Engineer

Sensen networks

Researcher

Dec 2007 – Feb 2011 · 3 yrs 2 mos

I worked as an algorithm developer for SenSen Networks, a company which specializes in using computer vision for intelligent video surveillance.
More information about the company can be found at:
http://www.sensennetworks.com/